"Oh, pshaw! we have already had enough of carnations," she said crossly, going on out of the door.
"I came too late," murmured the banker in some confusion.
"Would you like one of mine?" Isabelita asked him, timidly.
"Oh, with the greatest pleasure."
And he bowed smiling, and apparently delighted while the young girl placed the carnation in his coat. Yet I understood that he was disgruntled.
We all followed Cristina; and her cousin paired off with her, Sabas, Castell, and I walking behind. But we had not walked far when Sabas saw a charming shop-girl, and stopped to chat with her. Castell and I waited for him a moment, but seeing he was not likely to finish soon, we followed on after the ladies.
"This brother-in-law of Martí's seems to me a youngster of a good deal of ability," I said to my companion.
"As a critic?" asked Castell, laconically.
"As a critic?" I returned, surprised.
"Yes; he is admirably endowed with power to see the weak and strong sides of things, to weigh and measure, to compare, to penetrate the labyrinths of conscience. But these faculties are exercised upon others; it never occurs to him to apply them to himself. Thus all his analyses, criticisms, wise and pointed counsels, are wasted; and he is an absolutely fatuous and useless man. He has undertaken five or six careers, and gone on in none of them; he wasted his patrimony in gambling and dissipation; he martyrizes his wife, neglects his children, and he is at present living on his brother-in-law."